


Road Trip

by fakeyourdecaf



Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Alex is dumb, Gen, and k-unit kinda hate him, as usual, but the feeling is mutual, drugs??, like a year after Scorpia, slightly older Alex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 10:43:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11598990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fakeyourdecaf/pseuds/fakeyourdecaf
Summary: Of course Alex has to make a simple school trip into a spectacle. Why can't he just make a few good decisions and save himself the trouble? But does he even really want to turn up to this stupid lecture in the first place or will it reunite him with the life he thought he'd finally left behind in Egypt?-Originally from ffn.net but then I made an AO3 account





	1. Chapter 1

Alex had never particularly liked long road trips; the South Eastern motorway in England was a maelstrom of road rage and greasy old men with BMWs and superiority complexes. Needless to say, the thought of a three hour long trip to Cambridge with his year didn’t exactly fill Alex with excitement.   
Ironically the reason for said trip was because his year had been invited to a lecture on, what would you know, the British intelligence services. It seemed that recently, for some reason, they wanted to start attracting some new recruits. Of course Brooklands snapped up the invitation in the name of CV fodder. Many of Alex’s fellow year 11s still had little direction in mind for their studies and with their year 12 options coming up, the school wanted to give the students as many career ideas as possible.  
And that was how Alex had begrudgingly found himself wedged between Tom and a misty window on a stormy afternoon, travelling at about 5mph in heavy traffic. The coach smelled musty and about an entire loaf worth of crumbs were scattered about the floor. The scene on the road annoyingly reminded him of Cairo and Alex suddenly regretted taking a window seat. Once again the bus lurched forward, only to come to a grinding halt again after ten metres. Alex checked his watch. They were definitely going to be late.  
Beside him, Tom groaned with boredom. He had been fidgeting for the past hour and Alex was beginning to get annoyed.  
“Remind me again why I came on this trip Alex.”  
“I don’t know, I’m pretty sure you said something about missing double physics.”  
“Ugh, on second thoughts don’t remind me. We’re still getting homework you know! What’s the point? We’ve already done our GCSEs, what more do they want?” Tom huffed dramatically and sank down on his seat until his back was flat against the bottom of it and his neck was at a ninety degree angle. It didn’t look particularly healthy.  
Alex snorted at his friend’s antics before turning back to his previous task of counting the streetlamps as they went past. So far he had counted 347.  
“Alex?”  
“Mhmm.” He hummed in response.  
“Are you alright?” Tom’s voice was unnecessarily low. The volume in the coach was only just below deafening.  
“That was random. What do you mean by that?” Alex asked bluntly without turning around.  
“Well I guess I thought you might be worried or something. I didn’t think you’d even want to come on this trip seeing how they treated you and all. If this talk is being made by someone who knows you, couldn’t your cover be broken?”  
“Tom, you’re high.”  
“No,” Tom was slightly more forceful now, “really. What if they use you as some kind of case study? Or if someone there recognises you and says hi because they’re an idiot and…” He trailed off as he noticed Alex’s incredulous glare.  
“Tom. If anyone was stupid enough to do that, they wouldn’t even be working for MI6 in the first place. Literally the whole business revolves around secrecy and lies and if an employee has so little self-control that they just have to say ‘hi’ then I will be seriously worried about who Mrs Jo- the head is recruiting.”  
“See! Even you slipped up just now! I now know the first two letters of the head of MI6’s name.”  
Tom seemed genuinely excited about this information and Alex had to remind himself that his “job” probably seemed like one big, secret adventure to Tom. Any information was highly treasured by him, even if it was something that could probably be found out online.  
“You’re my best friend Tom. I can relax around you because I know I can trust you not to blab. This speaker on the other hand, will be on his best behaviour because it would be a bit of a problem if they accidentally let government secrets fall into the hands of a bunch of school kids. Anyway, I’m supposed to be some kind of top secret enigma. My existence has been kept so tightly under wraps that I’m more of a rumour than anything with the lower down operatives. And they will probably be the ones giving this speech. We’ll be lucky to even get one of their hired stalkers.”  
“I thought that’s what you are.”  
“My point exactly.”  
Tom looked unconvinced but chuckled anyway. Alex made a convincing argument but Tom knew that his fellow classmates could latch on to any information and analyse it to death. Even a nod to Alex could be picked up and then the theories would start flying.  
“What do you think they’ll even say to us that requires an entire lecture hall in Cambridge? Apparently there are going to be other schools there as well.”  
“I’m not really sure. It’ll probably be something along the lines of “great salary”, “rewarding work”, “serve your country” and “become a better you” if they’re including army stuff. They’ll no doubt leave out the “become a target both inside and out of your country”, “get shot at random times”, “be scared for your life 24/7” and “your boss is an asshole.”  
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like you’re talking from experience.”  
“No actually. My boss is a lovely old lady who makes me cookies each time I finish a mission.”  
“Really?”  
“No Tom.” Alex rolled his eyes. “I swear, I thought you’d be able to sense my sarcasm by now. It’s been nearly five years!”  
Tom’s hand went up in mock surrender. “You’re a convincing liar, my friend.”  
“That’s my job.” Alex retorted brightly.  
A pregnant silence ensued between the two and the bus continued its halting journey along the M11.  
Blaring car horns became the soundtrack to the journey and Alex found himself wishing that he had Spotify of his phone. He and Tom amused themselves for a while by playing with snapchat filters and taking sneaky mugshots of the people around them before one extremely sensitive girl caught them and proceeded to screech at them for a good five minutes.  
Eventually the traffic decided to ease off until the coach was finally travelling at a reasonable pace. Of course this was the moment one unfortunate boy decided to pipe up and calmly announce that he was about to throw up.  
Instantly the bus became a war zone. Teenagers were clambering over each other in a deadly race to get to the back of the bus, away from Unfortunate Charles and Alex found himself caught up in the scrabble, despite sitting two rows from the back. He was roughly pulled out of his seat and firmly planted on the crumby floor and he firmly believed that he was about to die. When somebody started screaming, the driver took it upon himself to pull over into a slip road just in time for Unfortunate Charles to rush out and paint the tarmac.   
A chorus of “Eww” and “Gross” went up from the spectating students and then the excitement was over. Everybody stood up and filtered back to their seats and Alex was pleased to find out that he was still with the living. He was less pleased however to find out that somewhere in the fray his right shoe had fallen off. Five seconds later he was even less pleased to see his shoe form a lovely arc through the air and land directly in the middle of one of the many fields bordering the motorway.  
“Bloody hell, can’t I catch a break?” he muttered to nobody in particular.  
He looked left. Tom was settling back into his seat and most of the teachers looked like they were trying to become part of the chairs they were sitting in. He looked right. Unfortunate Charles was being fussed over by the coach’s resident nurse and the rest of the students were taking a wide berth. The shoe thief was nowhere to be seen.  
There’s no point making a scene. I can just nip out, get the shoe and hop back in before they even notice I’m gone. They’ll almost definitely take a register before leaving again so even if I’m not back it’ll be fine. It’s only about 300m and a fence, I’ll be back in no time.  
Silently he drifted towards the front of the bus where the door was still open. The driver was also outside, “checking something” although it looked more like he was recovering from a near heart attack.  
Once outside, Alex carefully jogged across the slip road towards the fence. There was a lot of glass on the tarmac along with skid marks. Swiftly, he hurdled the fence collected his shoe and turned back just in time to see the bus begin to pull away.  
Instead of panicking, Alex just mentally face palmed. Of course this would happen to him! He scrambled to yank his shoe on as quickly as possible then sprinted back to the slip road, this time jumping over both an angry resident sheep and the fence whilst making as much noise as possible and waving his hands hoping that someone would notice. Of course, Alex’s luck of the devil only ever helped him in life or death situations and his efforts proved futile as the bus pulled back onto the main road and carried on its merry way without him.  
Alex animatedly slumped down to the damp grass and looked back at the angry sheep.  
“I guess it’s just you and me now buddy.”  
The sheep obviously did not agree and promptly bleated at him then turned around and waddled out of sight behind a low hedge.  
Alex sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He had a number of options: one, he could sit here and wait for somebody to realise he was missing and turn the coach around to get him, two, he could call Tom and get the same result, or three, he could find his own way there.  
Unfortunately, options one and two both had major drawbacks. Firstly, it was exceptionally hard to turn around on the motorway due to the major lack of regular roundabouts and that annoying little fence that separated the hither and thither sides of the road. Secondly, Alex wasn’t on particularly good terms with the school, owing to his regular, badly explained time off and, as they put it, general delinquency. Any more major blights on his record would more or less mean expulsion and wouldn’t MI6 love to be able to use that against him? No. He had to find his own way to the lecture hall.  
Quickly Alex sent Tom a brief text explaining his plan and emphasising the importance of keeping his absence as low key as possible. All he got in response was a “you’re mad” but Alex took that as a sign that he was okay with it.  
He was currently near Duxford, comfortably close to Cambridge by car, only about eight miles away, but there was no way Alex would be able to get there by foot. He was considering trying to hitchhike but then he thought better of it. He’d either be stabbed by the person who picked him up or he’d be waiting at the side of the road all day. He supposed that he could walk to the nearest town and nab a bike but even that would only shorten his journey time slightly. Then an idea hit him. It was stupid. It probably wouldn’t work. He’d possibly die. But he was Alex Rider and if anyone could pull it off it was probably him.  
It was only three minutes before Alex saw his opportunity trundling towards him. An open back truck filled with scaffolding and metal scraps and sporting bright red lettering that spelled “Cambridge” provided the theoretically perfect ride. It was a fair way off but was travelling at a reasonable speed. Alex guessed that it would pass him in about a minute. That gave him forty seconds so think of a way to get on.  
In the end Alex didn’t have the heart to herd a sheep onto a busy road like he originally planned. He didn’t think he could live with himself if the plan didn’t go well and the sheep ended up as roadkill. Instead he made the split-second decision to just jump for it. Alex didn’t know whether he was feeling particularly suicidal today or if it was just the best that he could come up with, but he only had ten seconds left to decide and he wasn’t coming up with anything better any time soon.  
This is madness.  
He took a few paces back for a run up.  
You are going to die.  
He judged the timings.  
Or at least get seriously injured.  
He ran.  
Oh my God you’re actually doing it.  
He jumped.  
You are an idiot.


	2. Chapter 2

He ran.  
Oh my God you’re actually doing it.  
He jumped.  
You are an idiot.  
\--------

The next two seconds passed in what could only be called blind panic. Blind because Alex squeezed his eyes shut halfway through the jump. Panic because he realised that there was an abundance of sharp objects inside the truck.  
The familiar crunch of something breaking accompanied his graceless crash landing. As luck would have it, he had managed to avoid landing on top of a pitchfork, only grazing it with his lower leg, however the same could not be said for his forearm. A small, stray metal scrap had managed to lodge itself about an inch deep into his skin, just missing any major veins and he assumed that the earlier crunch was one of his ribs.  
The piece of metal was small, only the size of a large pebble but it still hurt like a bitch and Alex had to take a moment to compose himself before looking at the damage. For a half-baked, idiotic and potentially suicidal plan, the damage taken was reasonably little compared to many others.  
It’s only fun if you get a scar out of it… Alex thought to himself dazedly.   
With the adrenaline rush wearing off, the pain in his arm was becoming ever more prominent and Alex knew that he had to get the metal out of it before the wound became any worse. Gingerly, he rolled up his slightly damp sleeve which was thankfully black and hissed as he saw a bead of blood ooze out and trickle down his hand. Fortunately the wound was thin despite being deep, restricting the amount of blood coming out but it would probably need a few stitches after the scrap was taken out.  
Alex gritted his teeth. Alright…Okay, you’ve got this- it’s like ripping a plaster off. Do it quick- Alex tugged suddenly and cringed as the rough, serrated edges tried unsuccessfully to cling to his flesh. Once out, the offending material was quickly discarded; thrown into a bush for some horrified person to find later. With the metal now removed, blood began to ooze out faster than before and Alex hastily dug around inside his pockets to find something to mop it up with. He didn’t want to make a mess in this poor man’s van. God knows what someone would think if someone looked inside and saw blood splatters everywhere.  
A packet of tissues, a sock and a piece of ripped tarpaulin later, Alex was patched up to the best of his abilities. Considering everything, he was actually quite pleased that he wasn’t dead and that the driver hadn’t heard him fall into the truck.  
He must be partially deaf or something. I wasn’t exactly quiet…  
For the next twenty minutes, Alex busied himself with trying not to fall out of the truck when it came to sudden, screeching halts at traffic lights and trying to get the GPS on his phone to work. Although he was somewhat familiar with Cambridge, he trusted Google maps a lot more than his memories from three years ago to guide him to Emmanuel College. All he knew was that it was somewhere in the middle.  
As the truck gradually slowed down as it entered the main city, Alex noticed just how many people were on bikes. They were everywhere and some seemed to be riding with a death wish. Alex decided that he would probably have to get out of the truck soon. Now that they were off of the motorway, there was a much higher chance of him being seen lying next to the pitchfork and that would raise more questions than he was willing to answer.  
At the next set of traffic lights he swiftly vaulted out of the truck, making sure to hide his tarpaulin-wrapped arm under his hoodie. The tarmac was still wet from the earlier storm which had thankfully eased off a while ago. Alex was only slightly damp. With all the grace of a cabbage, Alex landed in a particularly large puddle, managing to both soak his trainers and splash a small dog with the dirty water. The owner of the dog looked extremely offended and like she was about to yell at him so Alex decided to save himself the bother of a confrontation and by running away. It wasn’t exactly the worst thing that had happened that day, but he was already late, bleeding and wet and just wanted to get to that cursed lecture hall already so that he could sleep.   
A vibration in his pocket told him that Tom had just messaged him. Tom was the only person who ever messaged Alex. It was quite sad really.   
After quickly looking at Google Maps and happily noting that he was just a five minutes’ walk away, Alex opened the text.  
“Hey, the talk just started, I saved you a seat near the back. You should probably get here soon, I think Mr Jackson has noticed you’re missing. Do you know a Mr Smithers by any chance?”  
Alex nearly choked when he saw Smithers’ name. Was it really Smithers or just someone with the same name? Alex hadn’t seen the man since Egypt even though he’d been on a few more missions. Alex had found himself missing the man’s jolly reassurances and badly named gadgets.   
Alex became so lost in thought that he almost didn’t notice that he’d walked straight past the front gates of the college. He would have carried on walking if he hadn’t seen the school coach still parked on the side of the road. Alex took a moment to glare at the coach driver for leaving him behind before turning into the gates with a group of young people he assumed were students. It was moments like these that he was glad to look older than he was, otherwise the security guys at the door definitely wouldn’t have let him in so easily- they barely even glanced at him.  
Once inside, Alex silently marvelled at the perfectly mowed lawn and beautiful old building before texting Tom for directions to the lecture room. The reply was almost immediate. He was about to make his way there when a student carrying a pile of books and folders pummelled into him. He was unable to hold back a small cry of pain as his ribs took their second beating of the day.  
“Ah shit. Sorry about that…should’ve been looking where I was…hey are you okay?” The student looked vaguely worried.  
“Yep, I’m fine,” Alex wheezed as he stiffly bent down to help gather the books that were now scattered across the floor, “I just had a bumpy start this morning.”  
“It’s four in the afternoon.”  
“Yes. It is... Hey, do you by any chance know how to get in through the back of the lecture hall here? I’m late and don’t want to just waltz in through the front entrance.”  
The man frowned then shrugged. “Sorry, I’ve never really used that room. I think there are some stairs that lead there but I’m not sure.”  
Alex could tell that the man wanted to leave by his awkward fidgeting so he quickly said thanks and purposefully made his way towards a random door and opened it with gusto. Upon entry, Alex paused, realised he had made a massive mistake, internally screamed, backed out of the room, and internally screamed some more.   
He had found the lecture hall alright. And then he had just burst in right behind the speaker.   
Maybe nobody noticed…  
Alex’s phone buzzed.  
“That was quite the entrance there mate. You might want to get away from the door- Mr Jackson’s coming out.”  
Sure enough, moments later Alex heard footsteps behind the door and he had just seconds to scramble away and hide behind a pillar before a very angry physics teacher stalked out into the courtyard, muttering something under his breath.   
Alex could feel the wrath emanating off the man, who seemed to have something against him, and decided to make a dash for the nearest other door before he was found in his terrible hiding spot. What kind of spy was he if he couldn’t evade a teacher? He could hear the footsteps coming closer and felt like he was in primary school again, playing hide and seek, however possible expulsion was now the forfeit. Pulling up his hood so the Mr Jackson couldn’t see his trademark dirty blond hair, Alex suddenly made a dash for a group of students in front of the door in hope of using them as cover. He almost thought he had gotten away with it when he heard his teacher shout something unintelligible from not too far behind him.   
Alex groaned and rolled his eyes. Couldn’t this man just let it slide?  
The group of students provided a good barrier between Alex and his rampaging teacher; Alex had no trouble nipping between them but Mr Jackson who was a fair bit broader than the slight teen had to physically part the bodies in his way. This gave Alex a good ten seconds to get through the door and decide whether to go left, right or to hide. He almost felt like he was playing Outlast, just without the constant threat of death.   
Hiding seemed like the best option, seeing as he had no idea of the layout of the building, so he quickly pushed open a random door so that it was swinging when Mr Jackson arrived, then ran back to the door he had just come through so that when it opened seconds later, he was hidden by the heavy wood.  
Alex held his breath as he waited, hoping that the physics teacher would notice the swinging door on the far side of the room. He couldn’t move yet, but the heavy door he was hiding behind was slowly closing and if Mr Jackson didn’t leave soon he would surely notice Alex standing there. The seconds ticked by and just as Alex was about to admit defeat, Mr Jackson took off towards the swinging door.   
The spy wins this round I’m afraid, Sir. Alex chuckled to himself as he slipped back out into the courtyard.  
With one problem out of the way, Alex now needed to find the most inconspicuous way of getting into the hall before the teacher came back. From his brief glimpse inside the room, Alex had seen that Tom was sitting near the back, but still on ground level, near a window…  
All at once, yet another awful plan formulated itself in Alex’s mind. Quickly, he ran down the side of the building, searching for the right window. He cringed when he almost made eye contact with one of the pupils from the other school but continued his search and five windows later, Alex found Tom, who looked like he had fallen asleep on the window pane. He woke with a start when Alex tapped the window right next to his ear then proceeded to give him the most incredulous glare as Alex pointed to the latch on the inside of the window. Grudgingly, he flicked open the latch and opened the window just enough for Alex to slide through.   
For some reason, Alex’s usual grace seemed to have deserted him today and once again Alex’s fall into the room was accompanied by the sound of screeching chairs, the clattering of the window falling shut and a loud exclamation of “Shit!” as he landed on his ribs for the third time that day. Tom tried to cover up the sounds with a coughing fit but that only served to draw more attention to them in the silent hall.   
Alex could practically feel every pair of eyes turn to stare at them and he was exceptionally glad that he had landed on the floor so that he was somewhat hidden by the chairs around him. The same could not be said for Tom whose coughing fit was slowly dying down and face was rapidly turning red.   
An entire minute of silence ensued- Alex counted the seconds on his watch, then the bemused voice of the speaker echoed through the hall, drawing back the attention of most of the teenagers.   
“Well, I’m not entirely sure what that was, but as I was saying, that is more or less all you need to know about the tech department. If you have any questions, ask them now or forever wonder, because I need to leave here in less than ten minutes.”  
I know that voice!  
Alex scrambled to get up from the floor and sit in the chair next to Tom (who was still bright red) to confirm that it really was the man who he hadn’t seen for over a year. And lo and behold, there he was in all of his fat-suit, fluorescent shirt glory. Strangely enough, Alex actually felt slightly offended. The last time he had seen this man, they were being chased through the streets of Cairo by armed men who were intent on killing them both and Smithers had dropped the biggest bombshell he thought possible on him. After that he just left and Alex wasn’t sure that they’d ever see each other again. Hell, he didn’t even know that he was alive until now!  
Alex was suddenly angry. The one person who he thought was his friend in MI6 had been blanking him for God knows how long, probably content in the knowledge that Alex was safe, but couldn’t even spare a moment to let the latter know that he was back in the country.  
Gripped by frustration and rage, Alex stood up with his hand raised. Tom looked startled and thoroughly confused and gave Alex a look that pleaded for him to not draw more attention to them than needed.  
Alex ignored his best friend.  
“I have a question Sir.” Alex couldn’t help the venomous tint in his voice. Although the room was large, his voice carried through the silent room. Once again, rustling could be heard as everyone in the rows in front of Alex turned to look at the one student who actually had a question.  
Smithers’ eyes briefly widened in recognition, then his features returned to their previous jolly expression. Not for the first time, Alex wondered how on earth his fat suit was so realistic.  
“Of course sonny, fire away.”  
Don’t “sonny” me. Alex clenched his uninjured fist inside his hoodie sleeve.  
“Do you think it’s important whether operatives are told that their partners are safe after dangerous missions?”  
Wow Alex. Way to be discreet. That was in no way suspicious even though it had literally nothing to do with technology in MI6.  
“Umm, I mean, like, you know, do you think operatives should always be able to contact each other even when they’re split up, like do you have a `gadget’ for that or something..?” Alex mentally face palmed, and even Tom sniggered next to him at that awful attempt of a cover up.   
Smithers on the other hand looked slightly taken aback.  
“That was quite specific I must say, but yes, I do believe that it is important that operatives know that the people they work with are safe, especially once the mission is over-“  
Alex cocked and eyebrow and crossed his arms, in case Smithers missed the questioning look on his face.  
“-however sometimes, for many reasons, the higher ups choose to withhold this information. No matter how much it hurts the team, sometimes it’s better that some people are believed to be dead.”  
Of course.  
“Does that answer your question?” Smithers was back to smiling brightly.  
It wasn’t his fault. It was Mrs Jones.  
“Yes, thank you Sir.” Alex smirked back at him, all anger from before gone. “Just one more thing if you don’t mind though?”  
“What is it?”  
“Your fly’s open.”


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of Smithers’ presentation finished without any more problems or interruptions. However, the brief eye contact Alex made with him as he squeezed through the door on his way out promised painful revenge for his public humiliation at the hands of the teen.  
A few minutes after Smithers left, the kids in the hall were let out for a small break before the next talk which was to be given by representatives from a different department. Alex was slightly disappointed that he had arrived too late to hear Smithers talk about the technology department, because for all the times he had talked to the man and received gadgets, he actually knew very little of how the department worked. They seemed even more secretive than the field workers. He was definitely going to ask Tom about what had been said although with his luck, Tom would have slept through most of it.  
As the students filed out of the room, Alex stuck close to Tom in an attempt to use his small best friend as cover from the furious gaze of Mr Jackson who was obviously searching for him among the sea of teenagers. Luckily Alex managed to slip outside before the teacher found him and proceeded to yell at him for being rude to Smithers (and his earlier performance of sliding in through the window). Once outside, Alex immediately began to search for the fat man. His presence here obviously meant something; if MI6 didn’t want him to contact Smithers he wouldn’t have been here today and Alex would still be unsure whether the man was alive.  
A quick glance around the courtyard told Alex that the man was nowhere in the immediate vicinity. He was about to take off down the path that led to main gates when he suddenly remembered something. Perhaps…? Alex’s eyes were once again searching, frantically scanning the face of every person in the courtyard. He was about to give up when he noticed the mischievous blue eyes and short brown hair, standing unassumingly just outside the gate. He seemed to be taking a call but Alex knew better than that.  
Gently nudging Tom, Alex mumbled out, “Five minutes, I need to check something out.”  
“Oh no you don’t Rider, not again! Do you have any idea how worried I was when you weren’t on that bus today? It was like that time when you ran off at that mutant garden centre, or in Italy! Both times you barely came back alive! Nope, I am not letting you out of my sight again during this trip.” The smaller boy crossed his arms and nodded as if he’d said something Alex could never argue with.  
Pulling his hand through his hair in annoyance, Alex tried to reason with Tom, “Look. I’m literally going to be about five minutes and you will be able to see me the entire time.” He jerked his thumb in the general direction of Smithers. “I just have to go talk to someone. It’s kinda important.”  
Tom looked torn. Alex sighed.  
“You can come with me if you don’t make a scene.” He offered.  
At that, Tom’s face brightened and broke out into a grin.  
Alex led the way over to where Smithers stood, glad that the other students were milling around as well. Technically they were allowed to leave as long as they came back in time for the next talk, but Alex was always over-cautious, especially since he didn’t want to be interrupted by Mr Jackson. He casually sidled up next to the man in black jeans and a loose, informal shirt and waited for a moment, hoping that Smithers would be the one to start the conversation. Thirty seconds of awkward silence stretched out between them and Alex began to worry that maybe this wasn’t Smithers, that his mind was just playing tricks on him. After all, it had been over a year since he’d seen him for the first time without his fat suit.  
“Smithers..?” Alex ventured. He cast a glance at Tom who seemed thoroughly confused.  
Suddenly the man looked up from his phone, as if noticing Alex for the first time. He hastily took out some almost invisible ear phones and turned slightly sheepishly towards the boy.   
“Alex!” Smithers adopted his Irish accent, “Dear me, I should really be more careful. I barely noticed you there. Mind you, these new ear phones I’ve been developing are marvellous! A new take on an old design. You remember those sunglasses I gave you for Egypt for listening to people’s phones? Well, these work similarly but with a few new features.”  
Alex flinched slightly at the sudden mention of such a sore subject, but found himself intrigued nonetheless.  
“Unfortunately, that’s all classified and since you’re not working in the field with these I can’t tell you what those new features are.” Smithers chuckled at Alex’s disappointed face. “Aw don’t give me that face, you know I’m just messing with you.” He laughed and clapped his hand down on Alex’s shoulder in a friendly but firm pat. Alex exhaled sharply in what could have been mistaken for a short laugh, as his ribs, which were still very much broken, protested against the sudden pressure. A small black spot appeared in his vision for a moment and danced around Smithers’ face before slowly fading away. Smithers seemed not to notice.  
“How are you anyway, old chap? That was a fine entrance if ever I’ve seen one back there.”  
Alex cringed. “Uh, the bus managed to leave me behind during a sick stop, and no it wasn’t me who threw up- I’ve been to space you know, and I had to find my own way here. But Smithers, as much as catching up is nice, I really need to ask you, why are you here?”  
“I was telling these fine kids,” he motioned to Tom who was paying no attention to them and playing on his phone, “about the work we do down in I.T.” Alex huffed and rolled his eyes.  
“No, I mean why are you here, now?” He lowered his voice to avoid drawing unwanted attention, “MI6 obviously didn’t want us to make contact until now. Why? I almost thought they’d forgotten about me.” He laughed humourlessly.  
“Alex…ah, I wish I didn’t have to be the one to tell you this…”  
“Oh hell no. If you say what I think you’re about to say then we are going to have some serious problems.”  
“Alex. I¬-”  
“Nope.”  
“MI6 is-”  
“Wait.”  
“What?”  
Alex leant in to whisper in mock-horror, “You’re not becoming my new guardian are you?”  
Smithers opened his mouth, then frowned and closed it again. He took a moment to stare incredulously at the young teen in front of him. He must have been staring for longer than he thought because Alex’s smile faded and he looked concerned as he waved his hand in front of Smithers’ face. Abruptly, he snorted and shook his head.  
“Woah, I thought I’d lost you there, or worse that I was right.”  
“Why would you even think that in the first place?”  
“When I first came back from America after Cairo, they tried to send me to live with Crawley. I managed to convince them that I could look after myself and they gave me my own flat. I found out a few weeks ago that there were cameras and bugs from MI6 in every room except the bathroom and when I disabled them three guys with guns came in because they thought I’d been attacked. I thought that maybe MI6 decided that I can’t be trusted on my own anymore.”  
Smithers nodded sympathetically. “No, I’m afraid that’s not the reason but I must say, living with me wouldn’t be that bad compared to some others they could put you with. I don’t know why you seemed so horrified…but we’re getting off topic. Alex, I’m afraid MI6 need you again.”  
“Big fucking surprise.”  
“Well that wasn’t quite the response I was expecting.”  
Alex looked at Tom who was still doing a pretty good job at looking as if he couldn’t care less about their conversation whilst still listening intently. He looked back to Smithers and shrugged. “I was expecting it. They haven’t contacted me in over a year with anything other than housing arrangements. That doesn’t mean I’m okay with this though, I was rather enjoying normal life.”  
“Yes, well it seems MI6 need their small Bond back in action, although this mission doesn’t seem that bad from what I’ve seen.”  
“That sounds familiar.” Alex rolled his eyes.  
“That’s the spirit! Okay, I’ll just give you a brief summary of what I’ve been told and then if you take the mission you’ll receive a nice extensive file on everything you need to know.”  
“Yippee. I cannot contain myself.”  
Smithers quickly opened up an app on his phone and began reading. “Alright, so you have no choice and MI6 will take away your flat and make you live on the streets if you don’t take the mission. All the usual.”  
“Jonesy really takes after Blunt with her threats doesn’t she?”  
Smithers nodded then continued, “You are also going to live in this city for the duration of the mission, hence why you’re here now. I won’t be able to stick around too long after you’ve settled in but I’m basically here to convince you’re teachers that you need to leave early so that you don’t have to go back to London with the school.”  
“Good luck with that. Mr Jackson hates me to the core. I think he actually dreams about killing me. You should really get `6 to police check him again. Someday he’ll turn feral.”  
“I can have that arranged. Now, I can’t really tell you too much more until you agree to take the mission and that includes your friend who I’m pretty sure has been listening to us from the beginning.” He motioned to Tom who looked over angelically as if he’d only just noticed them.  
“He has. Tom’s my babysitter you see. He makes sure I don’t die when I go out in public.”  
“That’s right!” Tom piped up from behind Alex. He strode over and slung an arm over Alex’s shoulders, causing him to have to laugh and force a smile through the unwanted tears of pain that poked the back of his eyes. He probably looked a bit crazy. “Don’t worry, I can keep secrets. I’ve kept Alex’s for nearly two years now.”  
“Sorry kid, but I’ll lose my job and probably get sent to prison if I tell you Alex’s mission. I’ve let you stick around up till now because I know you know about Alex but seriously, it wouldn’t only be me that would get into deep shit if I told you. You’d probably get sent to juvie as well as becoming a target and Alex has some scary enemies. You’d best be heading off now. The next talk is going to start soon and you both probably want to be there. I just need to talk with Alex for a moment more.” Alex had to admit, Smithers could be pretty intimidating when he wasn’t in his fat suit and actually behaved like a professional operative. He wasn’t surprised when Tom gulped then nodded and briskly walked away after shooting Alex a funny look.   
“That was a bit harsh. The guy’s my best friend.” Alex felt his good mood slip a bit as he watched his last link to normalcy literally walk away from him. It’s actually happening again. I’m going back.  
“Yeah, sorry about that but I wasn’t kidding. Sometimes the truth hurts. Also it was necessary.” Smithers turned on the ball of his foot to face Alex again. “I’m assuming you’ll take the mission?”  
Alex shrugged. “It’s not like I have a choice is it?”  
“I’m afraid not son. Believe me, I feel pretty awful to have to be the one to make you do this.”  
“Strangely, if anyone other than you had said that, I most definitely would not believe them.”  
Smithers smiled sadly. “I don’t blame you. Now, I wasn’t expecting you to turn up with a friend so I don’t have time to tell you the mission face to face right now.” He took out his phone and began typing furiously. “I’m going to send you an email with a link to a secure website which has pdf files on your mission. I’ll give you the password now so that you can access it as soon as possible because the link will expire in three days. If you have any questions I’ll be around in the city for the next few days and make sure to call me before your class leaves so that I can have a custody battle with your teacher.” He finished typing with a flourish and hit a button. A few seconds later Alex’s phone buzzed in his pocket to alert him of a new email.  
“Will do Sir.” Alex sighed. He felt defeated. He couldn’t remember the last time he had put up this little resistance to go on a mission.   
Smithers put a hand on his shoulder again, more gently this time however. “I’ll see you in a bit. You should probably go now if you don’t want to be late again.”  
Alex nodded, still feeling thoroughly dejected at the thought of a new mission. “See ya.” He mumbled, raising a hand as he started walking back to the hall with the last few stragglers. At the door to the hall he looked back to see Smithers sling a rucksack over his shoulders and board a motorcycle. That was one vehicle Alex would never have pictured Smithers using a year ago. Alex snorted to himself as a picture of Fat Suit Smithers popped into his head.  
Inside the hall again, Alex quickly searched for Tom who had decided to sit in the front row for some reason. There was a spare seat next to him which Alex dramatically plonked himself into, suddenly feeling worn out. Whether it was due to the emotional stress of being thrust into the world of espionage again or the fact that he still had a bleeding wound in his arm and broken ribs, Alex wasn’t sure, but right now all he wanted to do was rest.   
“Why did you pick the front row? This is where the people who actually pay attention sit.”  
Tom huffed, clearly still annoyed at being threatened by Smithers. “I didn’t choose to sit here. There were no seats left near the back when I arrived. Apparently someone told everyone that the next talk will have audience participation.”  
Alex groaned and slid down in the hard plastic chair. His ribs throbbed but he didn’t really care. “Don’t make eye contact and we should be fine.” He muttered. A second later the projector above a white board flickered to life and Alex groaned again only louder and nearly slid off his chair and onto the floor. A sharp hiss of “Alex!” from the cluster of teachers to his left made him position his butt back on the chair, but he remained slumped forward. On the board was projected a typical army recruitment poster sporting the words: Join the army, Become a better you. Around the words were pictures meant to depict different branches of the army accompanied by some navy and RAF posters as well.   
The entire image looked as if it was made for a school project on Microsoft PowerPoint but it seemed to create the desired effect among the teenagers. As soon as the word “army” appeared on the board, a ripple of interest made its way through the crowd. Alex knew that a large number of the boys in his school had their sights set on various posts in the army so he wasn’t surprised that they were excited for this.  
Alex nudged Tom, motioning to the slogan on the board. “That’s what I was talking about on the coach.” He snickered. Tom cracked a smile and Alex suddenly felt a bit better having patched up his relationship with his best friend with that small gesture. He understood Tom’s frustration at being unable to help Alex when it came to MI6.  
The heavy wooden door opened suddenly on the right of the hall and the children fell silent within the same second. Alex held his breath as the four representatives from the army walked in in a manner he could only describe as efficient. Calmly, he began cursing every higher power he could think of, saving special words for Mrs Jones who obviously thought it was funny to reunite Alex with his buddies from K-Unit whilst on a school trip.


	4. Chapter 4

Alex slowly cocked his head to the side and rested it in his hand as he watched four men walk into the hall. Wolf. Eagle. Snake. And Not-Fox. Not-Fox was short Alex noted with a smirk. He stood at least four inches below Wolf despite the fact that his shoes had a higher platform than the standard issue army boots. All of the men were in full uniform and Alex was pretty sure that he could see the shape of a gun against Snake’s calf under his loose fitting trousers. Surely that wasn’t necessary? Were they honestly expecting to be attacked here or was it just precaution?   
None of K-Unit had noticed Alex yet. It was a bit surprising since he was less than 6 metres away and slumped as low as he could go on the tiny plastic chair. Nevertheless, Alex wanted to stay off their radar for as long as possible. He was already in a bad mood and if Wolf decided that it would be fun to mess with Alex in front of 200 other kids, that would be the final nope he’d need that day to send him back through the window and away from all of his problems.  
Abruptly, the echoing footsteps stopped. The men had reached the middle of the “stage” area and spun in unison to face the eagerly awaiting kids. Alex had to stifle a snort. They all looked so pretentious.  
I bet that was Eagle’s idea. He’s so dramatic.  
Predictably, Wolf was the first one to speak, addressing the kids with all the charm and kindness he could muster.  
“So you shits probably think life in the army is a fucking stroll in the park? Fuck around in foreign countries, make some friends, shoot some bad guys. Eh? Think again.” He pointedly scanned the rows of children in the back of the hall. “I doubt even ten of you could make the fitness requirement to be a private. Including the girls. Hell, most of you even ran straight to the back when you heard there was a possibility for audience participation. Are you honestly all that spineless?”  
Even though it was obviously a rhetorical question, Alex was tempted to respond with Yeah, pretty much but he managed to hold his tongue before he did anything stupid. Instead he just rolled his eyes and tried to sink further into his seat. His ribs still hurt like hell and he was pretty sure some blood was leaking through his makeshift bandage on his arm. All of a sudden Alex realised just how tired he was. Today had been a wild ride and he couldn’t wait to just sleep.  
A sudden gasp pulled Alex’s attention away from his thoughts and back to the men in front of him. When he saw the cause, he was actually pretty shocked himself. Apparently, K-Unit had taken it upon themselves to teach these kids about the horrors of war by showing them the most gruesome pictures they could find. Projected on the board were pictures of bullet wounds, amputated limbs, literal holes shot through people’s stomachs and burns that covered people’s entire backs. There were even a few corpses. Alex felt ill. And angry. He knew Wolf (because this whole thing basically had “Wolf” plastered over it in shiny pink letters) was trying to help in his own special way, trying to deter any kids who might not take the army seriously and thought that it would be easy, but this was a bit far. Some of these images wouldn’t even make it onto an 18 rated film and none of the students in the room were older than 17. Someone in the row behind him puked.   
Throwing caution to the wind, Alex stood up and stiffly marched over to the laptop and ripped out the cable which was hooked up to the projector. The large screen flickered to black, taking with it the horrific pictures. If the room wasn’t silent before it definitely was now. Alex couldn’t care less however, as he slowly turned to face Wolf with a look that hopefully said something along the lines of “you asshole, what the hell was that?”  
A hint of recognition flashed in Wolf’s eyes when their gazes met but other than that he showed no outward reaction other than mild annoyance at his performance being interrupted. Instead of the barrage of verbal abuse Alex was expecting from the man, he just crossed his arms, leant on one hip and calmly asked, “What the hell do you think you’re doing kid?” Out of the corner of his eye, Alex could see Mr Jackson going nuts in his seat, silently screaming at Alex to sit back down. Alex ignored him but not after making sure to make eye contact with him.   
“Well Mister Soldier-“  
“Wolf.”  
“Mister Wolf-“  
“Just Wolf.”  
“What?”  
“It’s just Wolf. No Mister.”  
“Oh, okay…Well Wolf, it seems you have forgotten that most of the people in this room are no older than 17 and despite the fact that Mr Jackson does bring up the average age considerably-”Alex heard a quiet choking noise behind him-“I believe that those pictures were…unsuitable for your young audience. I understand that it is the unfortunate reality of war but I highly doubt even half of the people in this room wanted to join the army anyway. Now you’ll just be left with the sadistic nutters who like blood- trust me there are a few. I’m sure your employers will be pleased to hear that you’ve deterred at least 150 pupils-”  
“Alright kid you’ve made your point. But seriously?” He turned back to the students. “Were you all that badly affected?”  
As usual, he was met with silence since nobody knew whether it was a rhetorical question or not.  
“Someone threw up on me.” Alex offered helpfully. “You also made a group of girls cry over there. Oh! And I think a guy passed out over there. I think it was the foot that did it.”  
“Shut up. You can sit down and stop being a smartass now alright C-kid. We get your point.” This time it was Snake who spoke. He looked pissed. Alex couldn’t fathom why. He shrugged and was about to sit back down when Wolf’s hand stopped him. He was grinning wolfishly and Alex got a really bad feeling that he had fucked up big time.  
“No, no. This leads on perfectly to our hand to hand combat demonstration and blondie here was brave enough to volunteer. We weren’t actually going to do audience participation today but you know what? I’ve had a change of heart.”  
Alex paled slightly. On any normal day he would have been up for it despite the fact that he would probably get his ass handed to him. There was a major strength difference between them and these men trained on a daily basis to be able to beat small fry like him whilst blindfolded. They weren’t just normal soldiers- they were SAS. However today was not a particularly normal day and Alex didn’t think that fighting with at least one broken rib and a stab wound in his arm would end well for anybody.  
Pride was not something Alex possessed in buckets, so he didn’t mind trying to obviously weasel his way out of this with words.  
“Way to pick on children Wolfie. I’m not exactly a fighter though- you’d probably get a better show out of…um…Mike!” He pointed to a large boy he knew had just started karate at the place where he used to take classes.   
“Aw hell no Rider! You keep me out of this!” the boy hollered back in response.  
“Mike get your ass up here before I come down there and drag you up here! We need more than one volunteer anyway so thank blondie for nominating you.”  
Alex could slowly feel himself becoming Public Enemy Number One and decided to keep his mouth shut. He coughed slightly out of awkwardness as he and K-Unit waited for Mike to make his way over and became a bit concerned when he noticed a small speck of blood on his hand. Holy hell, that’s not good. I should probably tell someone. He wiped his hand on his hoodie. Maybe later.  
Finally, Mike found a path through the chairs and sauntered up next to Alex. Despite the fact that he was obviously trying to ooze self-confidence, the boy did a good job at using Alex as a human shield to separate him from the rest of the soldiers.   
“Alright boys,” the wolfish grin was back as Wolf slapped Alex’s shoulder, “this is how it’s gonna work. You two see how long you can last against our newest addition to the team- Rabbit. We chose that for his code name because he was pretty jumpy when he first joined. We thought it was hilarious but he hates it. Anyway, if either of you can go for two minutes against him without conceding defeat I’ll give you a tenner. To be extra nice, I’ll even let you two work together. Cheer up Mike, you’re not going to die. Not unless you give Rabbit a reason to actually try.”  
Everything felt slightly surreal to Alex at this point. Is this real? Is this even legal?  
“Is this legal?”  
He looked over at the teacher corner. They all shrugged. Well great.  
“Alright then, let’s just get this over with.” Although Alex was still a bit pissed at Wolf he fully intended to throw the fight for two reasons. One, he was in pain and there was a serious risk of doing even worse damage to his ribs and two, Alex Rider isn’t supposed to know how to fight. Two years ago it was a different story; kids knew not to mess with Alex and his black belt after the Shed Incident but since then his “ill health” had rendered him unable to take part in even football. He was no longer one of the Sporty™ kids. Just ill with an attitude.   
He cracked his knuckles and walked forward to face Rabbit but Mike quickly shouldered past him.   
“Don’t worry sick kid, stay behind me and you’ll be fine.” He smirked at Alex.  
Nope. Scratch that. There is no way I’m going down before Mike!  
Despite his raging inner monologue, Alex’s face remained impassive with perhaps a hint of bemusement and as Wolf fetched a stop watch. He stayed standing behind Mike. He watched as the boy in front of him brought his hands up into what Alex assumed was some kind of starting position he’d seen on Mortal Kombat. He was even doing the bouncing thing although it looked more like he was doing feeble squats.  
“Alright, you can start,” came Wolf’s voice. There was a moment of hesitation before Mike lifted his fist and charged forward with a battle cry. Alex watched intently to see what Rabbit would do. He could probably easily side step the attack but Alex knew that these SAS guys liked to be flashy. His suspicions were confirmed when moments later Mike found himself flipped through the air before landing on his back. He actually had the audacity to look confused, as if there was no way he could have been taken down so easily before scrambling to his feet and attacking again. His approach was different this time and he opted for a classic tackle- something that had never failed him before. Again, Rabbit easily avoided the attack, side stepping and as Mike passed him lashing out to kick him firmly on the butt. It was more of a shove using his foot but it still sent Mike sprawling at Alex’s feet. The entire hall was in hysterics at this point and even Alex had cracked a smile at his classmate’s antics.  
It seemed that Rabbit had decided to stop playing with Mike now however. Before the boy even had a chance to move he had him in a loose choke hold with his knee planted painfully at the base of his spine. Mike struggled for a moment against the weight on his back but when Rabbit threatened to tighten his hold around the boy’s neck he quickly gasped out “I give up!”  
Wolf let out a low whistle and a chuckle. “Not bad kid. You lasted forty-five seconds which is forty-five more than I expected. You can go and sit down-not you blondie, you didn’t even try.” Wolf caught Alex by the hood as he tried to slink away. He fiddled with the stop watch for a moment before clicking the button on top and shoving him towards Rabbit.   
“You’ve got two minutes, starting now.”  
“Wait, what! Woah-”  
Apparently Rabbit had taken it upon himself to start the fight this time and had gone straight for a punch to the face. All at once Alex went into auto pilot mode and haphazardly lent back to avoid the punch my millimetres. He overbalanced slightly and to avoid falling on his butt (which would have been just as, if not more embarrassing than getting punched in the face) he did some weird backwards handspring which he only comprehended when he was back on his feet a few metres away. In the back of his head he registered slight pain coming from his chest but it was dulled by the sudden adrenaline rush. From that point on, he was constantly on the defensive, only doing as much as neccessary to avoid falling of getting hit too hard.   
Only two minutes. You can keep this up for two minutes. I swear it’s been two minutes already. Wolf you ass I see you smirking! This has been going on for way longer than two minutes!  
In a sudden flurry of rage and perhaps bad pain-clouded judgement Alex dropped to the floor and swept his foot at Rabbit’s legs, for once going on the offensive. True to his name, Rabbit jumped up to avoid the unexpected attack and tried to kick Alex’s shoulder on his way down. Rabbit had realised from his first attack that Alex had obviously had some kind of martial arts training and had been waiting for the kid to actually do something other than run and block.  
His short time in the air however gave Alex a small window of opportunity to grab his leg and yank it to the side. It was playing dirty and he knew it but Alex really wanted to end this as soon as possible and his small amount of pride wouldn’t let him lose even though he had lasted far longer than Mike. That and the fact that in the back of his mind he had a small voice telling him that he was in danger and had to get away. It was the voice that had helped him through dangerous missions before but right now it was paranoid, unwanted and sounded a hell of a lot like Julius Grief- who admittedly sounded just like Alex , just more evil.  
Rabbit, who Alex realised hadn’t uttered a sound since he first arrived in the hall, let out a small grunt as he stumbled and fell to the ground. Alex still had hold of his leg so he quickly adjusted his grip and dragged the man towards him so that he could get above him. Mirroring the man’s earlier tactics, he firmly planted his knee at the base of his spine then twisted his arm up just enough that it would hurt a bit. Rabbit struggled for a moment before going limp which Alex took as a sign that he had given up. He loosened his hold on his arm and moved his weight off of his back. Then before he could react, Rabbit head-butted him in the chin, turned around and fucking walloped him in the chest. Right in the broken rib.   
Everything went white for a moment and Alex cried out. He hoped it wasn’t too loud or at least above the normal yell-volume for someone who had just been punched in the chest. For some reason he didn’t feel like explaining why he had broken ribs before fighting an SAS soldier. Slowly, and in spots, Alex’s vision came back. He was glad to see that he hadn’t passed out and was still in the same place he had been it moments before. Rabbit’s forearm pinned his chest to the floor and slightly restricted his breathing and he was also sat on his legs. Alex was pretty immobile.  
I think this is a pretty good time to give up Al.   
Shut up voice. I can keep going.  
Can you really?  
Yes.   
But do you actually want to? You have an audience remember?  
Holy shit I forgot.   
Is that sarcasm I sense?  
You’re me. I bloody hope so.  
Just say you give up and you can go and get your chest seen to. I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure this fight made it worse. You saw the blood before, you could have internal bleeding. Now stop being a stubborn idiot and just-  
“I give up.”  
Wolf pulled a face and nodded slowly. He clicked the button on the top of the stopwatch.  
“Four minutes, five seconds. Not too shabby.”  
“Thanks.” Alex wheezed back from the floor. He took Rabbit’s hand when it appeared in front of him and was forcefully dragged upwards so fast that he stumbled into the shorter man. As he was recovering from the sudden change from horizontal to vertical he thought he heard Rabbit mumble “thanks” but he wasn’t sure. He was still pretty dazed.   
All Alex wanted to do now was sit down but yet again, before he could escape Wolf summoned him with a call of “hey blondie c’mere”  
Alex groaned but obliged. He was startled when a ten pound note suddenly appeared in front of his face until he remembered Wolf’s promise at the beginning.   
“I didn’t actually think that I’d be giving this away today but a promise is a promise I guess.” He held out the money expectantly and Alex cringed a bit. It just felt wrong to take money from this man, this soldier who had made a good portion of his life hell and then saved him mere months later.  
Their relationship was strange to say the least but you know what, I’m sixteen, I’m probably broke since MI6 never pay me so who am I to turn down money.  
As Alex pocketed the note and sat down, quiet applause broke out from the spectating students and if Wolf had noticed the smudge of blood on Alex’s hand, he didn’t say anything.


	5. Chapter 5

Alex felt like death. All he wanted to do was sleep but Tom was being an ass and nudging him every time he threatened to pass over into the land of nod. Honestly, could this presentation be any longer? Forty minutes had passed since the hand to hand combat spectacle and Alex’s interest in what his former unit had to say had steeply declined since then. He was pretty sure his “fucks given” level was in the negative by now.  
Eagle’s voice buzzed irritatingly in his ears and had been doing so for a while now. Begrudgingly, Alex dragged his eyes up to watch the young man as he dramatically explained some of the general happenings in the camp back at the Brecon Beacons. Nothing of any substance was said but that didn’t mean that the man didn’t have over half of the students hanging from his every word. Even with his generic descriptions, this was the most animated Alex had ever seen Eagle and Alex thought that it didn’t really suit him. Although that could have just been Alex’s cynical teenage mind talking. He noted that he really needed to stop with the internalised sass at some point.  
Alex spent the rest of the speech flicking through his phone. In true spy style, none of his teachers noticed the small device that was hidden by his leg as he proceeded to play a dupe version of flappy bird for the majority of the hour. It was a welcome distraction from the dull throb that was present in both his head and chest. Of course Tom noticed but when he tried to copy, the ever present Mr Jackson was quick to snatch the offending technology away.   
Snake had been watching Alex for a while before the teenager finally noticed. His gaze was steady but slightly off to the side and Alex was unsure as to whether the man had actually been looking or not. It was only when his sharp eyes momentarily flicked back to Alex that he became certain that the soldier had been watching him till now. It made him somewhat uncomfortable to be under the direct scrutiny of the SAS soldier but Alex tried not to let that show through his body language as he righted himself in his chair. His leg was beginning to go dead from the awful plastic he was sitting on. He abandoned flappy bird. It could wait for another day.  
Alex was very aware of the slight dampness on his sleeve as he dragged his eyes over to the clock on the wall. He was startled to see that there were only five minutes to go before the end of the “lecture”. Finally! The SAS unit had definitely taken their time to monotonously drone through their heavily censored descriptions of missions from years ago. A quick text was sent to Smithers. With any luck, Alex would be gone from this stuffy hall and be away from his former unit in less than ten minutes. That thought alone was enough to raise his spirits somewhat.  
A polite round of applause suddenly thundered to life around him. Alex instinctively joined in and watched in relief as Wolf, Snake, Eagle and Rabbit filed out through the large doors behind them. He noticed that Snake kept his eyes on him until the moment he left. That was a bit strange. And slightly creepy.   
Within a few minutes, the teens in the hall had followed the soldiers outside and were loitering in the courtyard. For some reason, the coaches that were meant to be waiting outside to take the crowd back to London were nowhere to be seen. Neither were K-Unit for that matter. This didn’t particularly bother Alex, but the absence of one Mr Smithers was irritating. As he swept his eyes across the courtyard a ringtone blaring Rick Astley started up, causing everyone in the vicinity to turn and stare at Mr Jackson. A look of pure panic crossed his face as he realised that it hadn’t been on silent this entire time and he aggressively took it out of his pocket then stabbed a button.   
“Hello, yes that’s me- I- oh. Really? Right now?... Why wasn’t I told earlier? No, he cannot! This is ridicu- Yes…yes of course, I’ll send him right away…Alex!”  
Alex had a pretty good idea of who had just been on the other end of that call, but he had no idea what had been said. It must have been strange because Alex had never seen anything even remotely close to the worry that was on his teacher’s face right now.  
“Yes, sir?”  
“That was a man from the hospital- Dr Smith. He said that a blood test has come back positive and you’re needed urgently back in London.”  
Alex had no knowledge of any blood test but decided to play along. Of course MI6 would once again get him out of school with the classic “Alex is deathly ill.”  
Clapping a hand to his mouth, Alex widened his eyes. “Oh no…They said it wasn’t going to be so…so soon.” Alex knew he was being an ass but it was amusing to watch Mr Jackson’s face as it morphed from anxious to horrified.   
“They said they were sending a- uh, social worker to collect you early- you should recognise him. Do you want me to come with you? You’re looking a little pale.”  
Alex shook his head and quietly thanked the man. He could feel his eyes following him as he walked through the gates that opened the courtyard onto the main street with Tom close behind. He had obviously seen the entire exchange and was finding it difficult to hold back his laughter. Tom hated Mr Jackson as much as Alex and it was fun to see him flustered.   
Safely out of view, Alex cracked a smile at his best friend and cackled like the evil child he was.   
“He must really have been rattled. I’m pretty sure it’s against the law to just let a student waltz off during a school trip.”  
Tom snorted. He was about to say something when a pale green car pulled up next to them on the road. It was fairly small with tinted windows, one of which had a young man hanging out of it.  
“You should have told me you’d been demoted to social worker Smithers.” Alex greeted for the second time that day.   
“This is definitely not the worst job I’ve had to pretend to do, kid. One time in Moscow I had to pose as a barman- don’t ask why, but it was hellish. Anyway, you good to go?”  
“Sure, just give me a second.” Alex turned to Tom. It was strange to actually have time to say goodbye before a mission. Normally things got going so quickly there was barely time to breathe before he found himself whisked halfway across the world. It was a nice change for once.   
“I guess I’ll see you in a few weeks,” he shrugged. “This time I’ll probably actually be able to text you once in a while, but no promises.”  
“Yeah, make sure you do. It’s nice knowing my best friend isn’t six feet under, even if it’s only temporarily.”  
They both chuckled and Alex swung his rucksack into the back of the car.  
“I’ll go tell Jackson that you got into a car with a strange man.”  
“Thanks man, I know I can always count on you.”  
There was an awkward silence before Tom dipped his head and began making his way back to their classmates. He was walking backwards and watched, grinning as Alex dipped into the back of the car with his bag. He was worried and they both knew it but Alex did enough fretting for the both of them. After all, Tom would always be just a bystander. As much as he wished he could, there was nothing he could do to help his friend other than smile and support him as he watched MI6 tear his life apart once again.  
Inside the small car, Alex watched as Tom mingled back into the crowd then disappeared. Smithers revved the engine and suddenly they were away. The traffic was light with a mixture of bikes, busses, trucks and cars around them as they made their way down into the centre of the city.   
Alex and Smithers made light conversation, and for a little while, Alex managed to convince himself that he wasn’t back on a mission. He just sat back into the slightly moth-eaten seats of the car enjoyed the sights. That was until Smithers flicked the indicator and turned into a gravely driveway.  
A small block of flats stood in the gravel  
“Alright Alex, this is where you’ll be staying whilst you’re here. I can’t stick around but I’m sure you’ll find your way there just fine. The room number’s 12, second floor and `6 have been kind enough to give you an allowance this time.”  
There was definite sarcasm in the Irishman’s voice as he said that last bit. It was nice to know that someone was as exasperated with MI6 as Alex was. For a moment, Alex thought that that was it, and Smithers was just going to leave him there but then the man reached into the glove compartment and retrieved a small bag. Gadgets.  
A little bubble of excitement floated up in Alex’s stomach and he suddenly felt 14 again. If there was anything he had missed during his year free from espionage, it was the gadgets. Smithers must have noticed the gleam in the teen’s eye because he smiled a little.  
“Alright son, I have a few small things that might help this time. They were a bit rushed but I’m sure you’ll find a use for them somewhere. First up, we have this.”  
He held up a small blue piece of plastic with a large black strip running down the side of it. It looked like a generic credit card.   
“This right here does multiple things. It’s your debit card from MI6 primarily, they’ve given you around £400 but of course, they’ll monitor what you’re spending the money on- so no splashing out on whatever you kids buy these days! However, this can also be used as an access card. Most key card locks use the same software, especially in this area so you can more or less open any door with this. It won’t work for every door, but I’ve done what I can. It’s also fingerprint sensitive-right here, which will come in handy because pressing this button,” he gestured to a tiny red dot on the side of the card, “will send a distress signal out to MI6. Your finger has to be over the fingerprint sensor for any of the functions to work. We’ve had some problems recently with agents setting off distress signals from inside their pockets and that’s always a pain…”  
He handed the card to Alex who pointedly slid it into his front pocket.  
“Secondly, we have a little bug device.”  
Out of the bag came a packet of ladybug push pins.  
“These are some of the smallest bugs we have and they’re very easy to operate. All you need to do is stick the pin into a wall or board and it will be activated. Or you can twist off the pin and stick it to the bottom of a table or something like that- you just need to put pressure on the pin beforehand; this switches it on.”  
Alex slid the 12 pack of ladybugs into his rucksack. Of course there would be a pun somewhere.  
The third gadget was a sleek black phone case. Of course MI6 knew the exact model of phone he had. It let him intercept text and Wi-Fi signals that were being used in the vicinity so that he more or less had the ability to hack into anyone’s phone around him, provided that they were using the internet or had just sent or received a text.  
“And finally, this is something MI6 were hesitant to let you have. Especially after what happened in Egypt. If you don’t want it you don’t have to take it but I thought that you should at least have the choice.”  
A small hand gun was produced from the bag. Alex’s mouth went dry. The last time he had used one had been with Juliu-no, that was a year ago. He was over it.   
“I know how you feel about these but you’ve been alone without protection so many times now, and one day your luck is going to fail. You’re not fourteen any more- I just want you to be prepared. It is safe enough for you to carry around and it won’t be picked up by scanners in museums.”  
Alex nodded. With a hand that was only slightly shaking, he took the weapon. It was remarkably light, barely weighing more than a few tens of grams. It was small too. It looked more like a toy than the lethal weapon it was. He waited for Smithers to continue, to tell him that there was a secret use to it or that it only fired stun bullets, but he remained silent. Alex slid the tiny gun and extra ammo into his bag with the ladybugs before nodding goodbye and slipping out of the car.  
The gravel was still wet from the rain that morning. Little shines of water glinted off of the coarse stones which grated and crunched as Smithers reversed the green car back out onto the main road. He gave a little wave then was gone once again, just like Tom, mingling with the rest of the traffic. Alex was left standing outside the small apartment block that was to be his home for the next few weeks.  
\------  
His room was on the second floor. It overlooked a small street that lead out either onto the main road on the right or a small field on the left. There were three more floors above him which all housed university students, Alex assumed. One look around the tiny apartment told Alex that he would be extremely cramped living here. The bed took up the majority of the space and a small desk occupied the rest, leaving a mere two metres of floor space empty. Even the balcony was tiny. There was only just enough room to stand on it if he kept his back flat against the wall, still, it offered a small respite from the claustrophobic interior. If he was ever ambushed, it would make a viable escape route. That thought made Alex frown slightly. Here he was thinking about ambushes and he still had no idea what the mission even was!  
He left the balcony and shimmied his way over to the bed, pulling his laptop out of his rucksack as he went. He quickly assessed it for damage since it had really taken quite the beating today and was pleased to find only one tiny dent in the lid. Alex had accidentally left the laptop on standby for the whole day, so it was rather low on charge by the time it booted up. He couldn’t be bothered to go on a hunt for his charger right now, which was no doubt buried in the deep, dark recesses of his bag by now, so he made short work of opening his email and opening the website with his mission files on them. Smithers had probably protected the files so that he couldn’t screenshot them but there was no way he could stop Alex from taking pictures of them on his phone. He would delete them later but right now his computer was about to die and he had a personal rule to keep his phone as out of MI6 business as possible. That included opening emails from them. His phone was something he kept on him at all times so it made him feel more secure to keep it separate from his line of work. Alex knew it was a bit paranoid and that if Mrs Jones wanted to access his phone, she could do it at the push of a button, but if he could fool himself into thinking he had even a bit of control in his life, he damn well would.  
Just as he finished taking the last photo of the five page document, his laptop screen went black. Alex pushed away the laptop then flopped back onto the bed to read.   
The mission was actually very simple. Alex was immediately suspicious and read the page again.  
\---  
Alexander J. Rider  
Mission file:  
March 18th  
Recently, there has been a sharp increase in the supply of class A and B drugs in the city. There has always been a small amount of drug use which we loosely monitor, especially by students but this spike is much larger than normal. What is especially worrying is that we cannot pinpoint who is producing them because we believe they are coming from within the university. We don’t want to get the police involved yet because we want to take the problem down quietly and without public knowledge. If we start taking people in for questioning more than we already have it is highly likely that the supplier(s) will lay low or even run and we need them brought in at any cost. This needs to be done quickly and efficiently.  
As part of your cover you have been entered into the “Asian and Middle Eastern Studies” course- you will be studying Arabic and Persian along with Spanish whilst you are here.   
Your name will be Alexander (Alex) Renaud. French father, English mother. Both work in banking in Nice. You have come to England for six months to study whilst your parents are away on business and chose a course which is less competitive.   
You will use your time here to track down the drugs supplier and also improve your language skills. The lecturers won’t ask questions; we have made sure of that. If you need more time, contact us through our other operatives in the area who will be assisting you in this mission. As we have reason to believe that the supplier may be dangerous, K-Unit have been placed in the apartment next to yours for your protection. Three members have recently been injured so they were given leave from the SAS for the next few months.   
\---  
Alex stopped reading from that point. He just lay on the bed for a while, feeling a confusing mixture of emotions whirl through his head. The most prominent was anger- why did MI6 think it was necessary for him to have backup now? Why K-Unit of all people? And what was Mrs Jones not telling him? There was obviously more to this than just some drug trafficking otherwise the police would be in there quick as a whip. This mission could definitely have been done by someone else, so why did they need him specifically?  
Alex’s thoughts were interrupted when there was a sharp knock on his door. He was startled enough in that moment that he managed to drop his phone on his face and it hit him just below his eye. Alex spent a moment rolling around on his bed, clutching his new wound and waiting for the initial pain to subside before sliding onto his feet and staggering to the door. There was no peep hole but Alex had a pretty good idea of who was going to be standing there. He wasn’t surprised in the least when he saw exactly what he had suspected. Wolf and Snake.  
In perfect synchronisation, Alex and Wold both rolled their eyes.   
“I fucking knew it!” The older man huffed.   
“I see you’re just as happy with this arrangement as I am.” Alex replied flatly. For some reason, the only thing that was bothering him right now was the fact that he still wasn’t as tall as either of the SAS men yet. He wasn’t sure why but made a mental note to never bring that up in conversation.  
To make it clear that he didn’t want either of the men to enter his room, Alex leant heavily on the doorframe, blocking their view inside as bet he could.   
“So what brings you two here anyway?” He asked as nonchalantly as possible. “I’d have thought you’d still be down at the hall taking care of the children.” The question seemed to irritate Wolf further and Alex decided to make a game of seeing how far he could push him. With any luck, the whole unit would get the message and leave him alone as much as possible.  
“We came here to confirm my suspicions. MI6 never told us who this “agent” was that we were sent as backup for. Now I know why.” Wolf snarled. “When I saw you there in the hall, I fucking knew and now I’m pissed off. Of course ‘6 would send us on some fool’s errand as soon as we were available. This is bloody intern work!”  
“I’m glad to see that we’re on the same page with this Wolf. Since it’s pretty clear that neither of us want to spend any time together why don’t we just call it quits here? You get a six month holiday, I finish up this business here in a few weeks without you guys, it’s win-win really. Waddya say?” He wiggled his eyebrows a bit at the end to further get his point across and could have sworn he saw a vein pop in Wolf’s forehead but before the man could could say anything, Snake spoke up.  
“Yeah, as nice as that sounds kid, not gonna happen. Mrs Jones really likes you…” He looked Alex up and down pointedly. “…For some reason. Basically, if anything happens to you whilst we’re here it’s our necks on the line. She made it very clear that she could destroy our careers if you end up dead or something so it is in all of our best interests to keep you safe.”  
Alex groaned and let his head fall back. So close.   
“I can look after myself.” He snapped  
“Apparently not.”  
Alex glared at Snake. “What’s that supposed to mean?”  
Before he could react Snake had stepped forward and grabbed his arm, roughly digging his nails into the wound which was still aching from hours ago. Alex cringed and let out a small yelp of pain. He tried to wrench his arm out of Snake’s grasp but there was no room to move in the confined space of the hallway so he made a swing at his chest in an attempt to loosen his hold. This proved to be a mistake when Wolf caught his fist mid-swing and bent it back until he cried out again.   
“Don’t go swinging at my teammate kid. You’re not one of us anymore. You never were.”  
Snake ignored Wolf and slowly let go of Alex’s arm. He stepped back deliberately before speaking.  
“Look kid, I’m not doing this because I want to. I get that you don’t want us here and we don’t want to be here either but I’m not sacrificing my career for your temper tantrums. I don’t know what you did to get that cut but it’s pretty deep and if it’s still soaking through your sleeve it must be pretty bad. Just let me look at it and we will be out of your hair for at least a few days.”  
“I can do it myself. I’ve dealt with wors-” He was cut off by Wolf, who was still gripping his fist, twisting his arm back until it was nearly as far as it could go. Alex’s ribs screamed in protest and a single black danced in his vision for a moment. It was a warning. This was obviously a fight that Alex was never going to win so he let his body go slack.  
“Fine, fine. Do what you want.” He muttered. Thankfully, Wolf let him go a couple of seconds later. For some reason the whole interaction had left Alex a bit light headed so he discreetly leant against the wall as he made his way back into his tiny room with the two SAS men in tow. Out of nowhere, Snake produced a small bag with medical supplies in it and ordered Alex to sit on his bed.   
Alex obliged and watched silently as Snake rummaged around in his bag and withdrew with a roll of bandages, a bottle and a small plastic box.   
“Roll up your sleeve.” He said in the distant tone of a medic.   
Gingerly, Alex pulled up his sleeve to reveal the rushed tissue-sock bandage he had made earlier which was the unpleasant reddish brown colour of semi dried blood. He pulled that off as well and deposited it in a bin then looked at how his arm was holding up.   
To Alex, it didn’t look that bad. The edges of the wound were a light greyish-pink and the area around it was an angry red. He had seen better, but he had also seen a lot worse and in the grand scheme of things, this didn’t seem like anything to worry about. Snake’s face told a different story.  
“How the hell did you do that?” Snake asked incredulously.  
Alex shrugged. “I jumped into a truck. It had some scrap metal rolling around in there and I guess I was just unlucky.”  
Snake muttered something under his breath that Alex didn’t catch then reached for his bag again. This time he pulled out a small syringe which Alex raised an eyebrow to.   
“It’s infected, Cub. Pretty badly too but this should clear it up mostly. I’m still baffled as to how you managed this but let’s not get into that right now. Wolf could you get me some water from the bathroom?”   
Wolf nodded then left. Snake sat down and began working on Alex’s arm. He first cleaned it off with some fancy wipes then picked up the syringe. As he carefully took it out of its casing he cast a look back at Alex who was sitting unnaturally still.  
“Got anything else you want to tell me? I noticed you had some difficulty moving during your fight with Rabbit earlier.”  
Alex couldn’t be bothered to try to skirt around this question, especially when the man asking had a syringe. Nodding, he used his free hand to lift up the edge of his shirt to reveal a large purple and black bruise forming on his side. Snake gave a low whistle and gently prodded the area around the bruise.   
“Yeah, that looks like a couple of broken ribs to me. There isn’t really much I can do for you right now except give you a prescription for some pain meds, but that will be in a bit because I’ll need to get to my computer first. All I can recommend is that you put some ice on it and don’t do anything too strenuous for a while. Sleep upright tonight as well, that should help with the pain.”  
“Wonderful. That sounds fun.” Alex was about to say something else when Wolf re-emerged from the bathroom. Alex quickly pulled down his shirt and Snake thanked him for the water. He dunked a wipe in it and then carefully continued to clean the inside of the cut. He did his best to avoid the deepest parts but it still stung like hell and Alex couldn’t help some of his sharp inhales through his gritted teeth. The injection came next which wasn’t as bad as Alex had anticipated. Then Snake picked up the little box and pulled out a sealed packet with a short curved suture needle in it. Alex felt like he had shot himself in the foot at that point because he distinctly remembered thinking that he would need stitches for his arm. Today really was his lucky day.   
Half an hour later, Alex’s arm was deemed acceptable by the K-Unit medic so he and Wolf packed up their things and left with a forceful promise to check how his arm was doing the next day. By then, Alex was knackered so he sent a quick text to Tom then flopped down, still fully clothed and was asleep in minutes.


End file.
